Treasure God's Word in Your Heart

One way to safeguard ourselves from sinning against God is to hide His Word in our hearts as a precious treasure. When temptations come along, God's Word stored up in our hearts will give us wisdom and guide us to stay strong, resist temptations, and do the right thing. We are to bury the treasure of God's Word deep in our hearts so that God's Word will guide our thoughts, will, words, and actions. As a result, we will be kept from sinning/will be deterred from going astray. Even mature Christians are not immune to temptations. We all must be on guard always. It's not possible to isolate ourselves from all of life's temptations. But we are not to yield to them. We must follow Jesus's example when Satan tried to tempt Him in the wilderness. In each temptation, Jesus used the Scriptures to counter Satan's offer. He didn't succumb to the temptation; He did not sin. He overcame each temptation with God's Word. We don't have to sin when facing temptations, either. It's very important that we know the Scriptures so well by heart. The Scriptures we've learned and memorized will be readily available whenever we need it. They will be ready on all occasions to counsel, comfort, or caution us as need arises. They will strengthen us to say no to ungodliness and worldliness and will enable us to detect any lies and false teaching.

"The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible." (D. L. Moody)

"The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip." (Psalm 37:31)

"My son, keep My words and store up My commands within you. Keep My commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye." (Proverbs 7:1-2)

I would like to encourage you all to take time to memorize the Scriptures which is powerful fuel for energizing our soul. In the future, we may not always have religious freedom in this country. If the Bible were to be taken away from us, the verses we have memorized would be there to remind us of God's love, mercy, and faithfulness, assure us of God's power and providence, encourage us, comfort us, guide us, and feed/nourish us (spiritually). 

"Too difficult," you say?
"Not an excuse," I say! If your brain is working, then you can memorize Bible verses. How many movie lines can you quote? How many song lyrics do you know by heart? How many ad slogans are stuck in your head permanently? You get the point. Sadly, some parents/teachers make their students memorize poems, famous political speeches and documents, etc. but never or hardly encourage them to memorize the Scriptures. It gives me great joy to see my kids delight in the Lord and His Word.

"Too busy," you say?
"Not an excuse," I say! Do you still eat your meals even on the days you are busy? If you take care of your body by taking in nutrients through eating your food everyday, why would you not daily feed yourself with God's Word and be willing to starve yourself spiritually? Without taking in God's Word daily, you will get weaker and weaker spiritually. Therefore, reading/studying the Bible each day is very important. Now...think of memorizing Bible verses as eating snacks throughout the day. Snacks give us extra boost of energy and sustain/fulfill us until our next meal. Bible memorization is similar but even better :)...keeping us energized throughout our lifetime (once in a while, we may need to review what we've already memorized because forgetfulness does happen to some of us :)).